A legacy that our young and next generations do not deserve

“TO FORETELL the destiny of a nation, it is necessary to open the book that tells of her past,” wrote Jose Rizal.

At this juncture of our history, the burial of Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani will close that that book or, worse, may even rewrite its content.

We are in danger of forgetting the history of tyranny, marked by Marcos’ declaration of martial law to perpetuate himself in power; suppression of press freedom and political dissent so the people would not know the truth; takeover of private and public businesses for himself, his family and his cronies; saddling our nation with massive debt (from $2 billion to $30 billion) and leading our gross domestic product to a precipitous decline.

He and his family stole more than $5 billion from the Filipino people, and only a miniscule amount of this has been recovered to this day. He waged war against the basic sectors of society and drove the nation and our people into poverty. He lied and embellished his past to make himself appear a hero, while he personally profiteered on the national patrimony and the scarce resources of the people. And during his martial law regime, he imprisoned 70,000 people, tortured a great number of them, and sent more than 3,000 others to a cruel death in an attempt to silence the legitimate voice of dissent, and to suppress the struggle of the Filipino people for freedom and justice.

The National Council of Churches in the Philippines knows this oppression first hand—our offices were raided and our staff were detained, and many faithful church workers and pastors of our member-churches were imprisoned, tortured and killed.

The burial of Marcos as a hero will not realize President Duterte’s vision of a nation healed and unified. Instead, it will add to our nation’s growing amnesia of the atrocities committed against the people during martial law. It will rewrite history in favor of the tyrant and make our nation vulnerable to the rise of new dictators.

A Libingan burial for Marcos will leave a legacy and impart lessons that our young and next generations do not deserve. Let us not muddle our historical memory and rub more salt into the wounds of the martial law survivors and victims. Much less should we taint our nation’s collective memory of our real heroes and heroines who stood up against oppression and paid with their lives.

In February 1986, the Filipino people said enough is enough. The world looked at the Philippines in awe as it drove away a dictator through a people power revolution. That show of empowerment by the Filipino people became a model for peaceful transition of governments around the world.

By burying Marcos in a cemetery for heroes, we will be telling ourselves and the world that in the end corruption pays and tyrants win.

Let Marcos be buried in his home province. Let’s respect and honor the sacrifices of the real heroes and heroines who stood up against tyranny and dictatorship. Let not the shovels of the gravediggers rewrite our history and bury the memory of our forebears who fought for our liberty. As the wisdom of the ages tells us, “Then I saw the wicked buried; they used to go in and out of the holy place, and were praised in the city where they had done such evil things. This is also vanity.”

(Ecclesiastes 8:10)

—REV. REX RB. REYES JR., general secretary, National Council of Churches in the Philippines